The first thing I felt was a heavy cold. Was this death? Was I feeling the cold of the void? I opened my eyes and all around me was a great blackness. I couldn’t see anything, yet I was still able to stand. A red mist started to form around me, simultaneously lighting the blackness with a crimson glow. I was starting to hyperventilate and a cold sweat was starting to form on my brow. I began frantically running in any direction hoping to escape or just disappear but no matter how far I ran the mist never faded and the nothingness remained. My breath was getting ragged and my legs were getting sore. I was getting nowhere but I couldn’t just stand there. It was then that the mist started getting closer, practically choking me with its heavy presence. I stopped in my tracks and began coughing heavily, the mist was now swirling around me in an intense vortex, forcing itself into my lungs and keeping my eyes shut. I felt my hooves leave whatever floor I had been standing on as the swirling mist lifted me into the blackness. I gritted my teeth and flailed my legs hoping that somehow I could get free. Then all of a sudden I hit the ground. When I opened my eyes I could see the wasteland again but the sky and horizons were still replaced by blackness. I shakily got to my hooves and screamed.

“Just let me die! Stop tormenting m-”

“Hey mister who are you talking to?” the sudden voice made me leap out of my skin. I turned to find it and was met with a young colt with a big smile on his muzzle. “Hi!” He said enthusiastically. I was speechless. I thought I was never going to see anypony ever again. When I didn’t say anything the colt’s expression turned quizzical.

“Umm do you wanna play?” Play? How long had it been since I heard that question? Somehow just hearing it asked made me happy. I sadly couldn’t indulge the kid.

“Can you tell me where I am? Am I dead?”

The expression on his face never changed, like he hadn’t even heard me.

“Let’s play hide and seek. You’re it!” And with that he ran off giggling all the way. I couldn’t help but giggle myself. Maybe I wasn’t dead. Maybe this was just some kind of dream. I didn’t have to be afraid then if that were the case. And if it was the case, then I had all the time in the world. I smiled at the realization, closed my eyes and started counting. “Ready or not here I come!” I opened my eyes and followed in the direction I saw him go. It was almost as if wherever I was knew what we were doing because suddenly dotted all around were great hiding spots. I swiveled my ears and heard a rustling sound not too far from me. I crouched down and started very sneakily approaching the tree that I reasoned was his hiding spot. I bounded around the tree triumphantly.

“Gotcha!” Sitting there plain as day facing away from me was the colt. “Umm...gotcha?” I said again weakly. “Hey kid, you ok?” When I spun him around to face me my ears were abruptly deafened by a loud blast which made me cringe.

“Are you alright!?” I could barely hear myself over the ringing in my ears. I reached out blindly to make sure he was ok and felt something wet on my hoof. When I opened my eyes everything from the day before came back and hit me like a train. Sitting in front of me was the colt from the slave wagon staring back at me with what had been left of his head.

“Your fault.” A voice whispered in my ears. Even though his lips weren’t moving, the voice was undeniably the colt’s. I fell back onto my haunches and desperately tried to scurry away from the specter.

“W-what the fuck is going on!?” I screamed back, unaware if it could hear me. Then the mutilated corpse flopped at me like a string-less puppet.

“It’s because of you!” the voice was coming from everywhere at once, boring into my head.

“I… there was nothing I could have done…” I defended weakly.

“Justify it however you like. It doesn’t change the fact that it is because of you.” Tears were freely rolling down my cheeks

“I’m sorry, I… I wanted to help so bad but I-” The apparition jabbed me hard in the chest.

“But you did nothing. You watched, you hid and you failed. You chose to put yourself before an innocent child.” I tried to cover my ears with my hooves but nothing could stop the voice.

“I couldn’t…I would have died…”

“But you would have tried! Instead you did nothing. YOU killed me just by being there.” I could barely talk around the frog in my throat.

“No…that’s not… what I-”

“You know what SHOULD have happened?” The colt pressed its muzzle against mine, its blood trickling down my face. “You should have killed yourself back when you left the stable. I would be a slave but I would still be alive!” The colt slowly started to disappear but before it had completely faded one last whisper echoed in my mind. “Because of you…” The world around me started to collapse and I sank into the blackness.

“NOOooo!” My eyes shot open and my flight instincts kicked into overdrive as I rose to my hooves as fast as I could only to be swiftly reunited with the floor. It had all been a dream, or rather a nightmare. I heard the sound of water. A steady flow and sparse droplets here and there. It was then I realized that I had survived as a crashing wave of realization hit me. The pain from where I had been shot returned as a dull throbbing. It wasn’t an open wound or anything like I imagined, in fact at a glance you couldn’t even tell I’d been shot. It was still sore and putting any weight on it was out of the question for now.

“Whoa, easy there guy, it’d be in your best interest to stop moving around like that.” My eyes snapped open as I searched for the source of the voice. Behind where I had been, casually laying on a table, was an orange mare with blood red mane wearing a brown leather duster and a cowpony hat.

“Where am I? How did I get here!?” she rolled her eyes in annoyance as if I was supposed to know the answer and jumped off the table.

“Relax. You’re at my place. We saved you from the raiders. Only survivor actually…” Those words hung in the air for a moment, a look of remorse on her face.

“Y-you…saved me?” I couldn’t remember much from the attack but I did remember seeing something in front of me before I passed out.

“Yeah. We heard a caravan was coming from Black Town and thought we’d check it out. Found you instead. You’re with us now, the Regulators.”

“W-What do you mean?”

She turned to face me and got so close that were practically touching muzzles.

“It means that you are one of us now and we are going whip you into fighting shape.” I looked away from her and nervously rubbed a hoof through my mane.

“Yeeeaaaah… thanks for the offer but I need to get back to Black Town and-”

“Ahem. Maybe I wasn’t being clear before so let me rephrase it for you. You are one of us now. We saved your miserable life and used the last of our meds to get you into working shape. You owe us.” My eyes were darting back and forth desperately looking for a way out.

“B-but I… I didn’t… You-” She stomped a hoof loudly against the floor and I was silenced.

“So here’s what’s gonna happen. You are gonna do some work for us at least until you pay off what you owe and then you can do as you please. Hopefully once you see what we are trying to do here you’ll stay.” With that she turned and started walking out of the room, leaving me sitting in the middle of… where was I? All around me were buckets of water, all manner of equipment and makeshift hospital beds. Some were clean and untouched and others were caked with dried blood. All around the room instead of walls were old sheets creating a barely passable amount of privacy. I looked down to my leg and rubbed it gently, a fraction of the pain still lingered. I should just go along with it for now I thought. Whether I asked for it or really even deserved it, they did save my life. For what it’s worth I owed them that much. Before I could get up on all four hooves the orange mare poked her head back in through the sheet wall.

“C’mon follow me, you aren’t gonna do us much good unarmed.” And with that she disappeared again. It was then that I noticed how cold I was, looking back over my shoulder the first thing I noticed was my bare flank. I was completely naked. It wasn’t the strangest thing in the world for me or ponies in general but back in the stable you hardly ever saw anypony without their stable jumpsuits on at least. It was a little uncomfortable but I was positive that it only bothered me, so I shoved the issue into the back of my mind and got up to follow the mare who would hopefully lead me to my things. I made my way past the sheet wall to see two large groups of chairs that were bolted to the floor. In the middle aisle was the mare trotting at a steady pace. I followed after her casting a glance behind me to see that the improvised hospital was a small stage area.

“Just where the hell are we?” I accidently said out loud.

“Just follow me and you’ll find out.” We reached a set of double doors at the end of the aisle which she pushed open. The doors led to a raised balcony of sorts. We were on the second floor of whatever this building was to either side of the raised path were giant glass tanks, many of which had their face panels smashed out. Also from many of the tanks flowed a steady supply of water, partially flooding the ground floor below.

“So that’s what I heard.” I mumbled under my breath. That’d also explain why it was so cold.

“Welcome to the Baltimare Aquarium. Or as we like to call it, Requari.” High above, crisscrossing all over the ceiling, were pipes of all sizes going in all directions some dripping here and there. The mare followed my gaze upward and smiled. “Yeah it’s not in the best shape but it grows on you. Anyway c’mon lets go get you your stuff.”

“Hey um… Miss? I just wanted to say…thank you.” She lifted an eyebrow like she was confused, though her smile never faded.

“Miss? None of that. My name is Sunny Smiles.” I chuckled at that and cracked a smile of my own.

“My name is Sparks and thanks again.”

“No need to thank me, I’m sure I’ll be saving you again real soon.” I hoped she was joking, but I knew better. Sunny led me further into the aquarium where I saw other members of the regulators dutifully practicing their craft, tinkering with odds and ends or just lazing about enjoying each other’s company. Which reminded me.

“So Sunny, just what do the Regulators do?”

“We’re vigilantes, though many ponies are distrustful and call us mercenaries even though we don’t take contracts or anything like that. We try to make the wasteland better for everypony so we take it upon ourselves to represent the closest thing to law there is out here and clean up the scum in true wasteland fashion, with bullets”

“You kill them?”

“What kind of question is that? Yes we kill them. You should know by now that it’s kill or be killed. I sifted through the caravan’s wreckage after the attack and do you even know what they tried to kill you for?” I honestly never thought to ask what we were escorting. I really only agreed as a favor to Dusty. I wondered if he was worried about me or even if he knew what had happened.

“No.” I muttered dejectedly.

“Building materials. They slaughtered all those ponies for bits of wood and nails.”

“Do you think if they knew that… that they-”

“What? Would have left you alone? No. Raiders don’t care who you are or what you have, they will kill, rape and destroy everything just because they can. The wasteland can get to you Sparks, in ways where you can lose yourself to it. Don’t ever defend them, don’t ever give them a second chance and never let them get away if you can, cuz no matter who they were before the wasteland consumed them what you will see out there are devils squatting in their corpses and it would be best to put them down like the monsters they are.” I wanted to say something, to say everypony deserves a second chance but that dream I had stayed my tongue. Whatever that thing I saw was it was right, I couldn’t hide when facing them and have innocents die through inaction…not again and Sunny was right, maybe it would be easier to just see them as monsters. My ears fell back against my head and I stayed quiet.

“Don’t worry about it, trust me- you’ll get used to it.” I didn’t know that I wanted to ask anything or even talk to her just in case she had more heavy words to weigh my heart down and with that decision the rest of the walk was one of silence. When we got to the room where my things were being kept (which was just an old janitors closet) the first thing I did was quickly put on my utility barding and security armor over it. Behind me I felt Sunny put a hoof on my shoulder.

“Hey…can I ask you a question?”

“Umm sure.”

“I see you have a PipBuck on your leg… do you know how to use it?” I contemplated what that question was supposed to mean longer than I should have. “It’s pretty obvious you’re from a stable or recently scavenged one. So tell me, can you use that tech.”

“Look, I’ve had this PipBuck since my cute-ceañera I’m pretty sure I know how it works.” I said with an air of pride.

“Weird, your E.F.S should have told you that you were in danger before the attack.” Her smile one was that said she knew something I didn’t.

“…My what?”

“That’s what I thought. Here give me your leg.” I held up my leg for her to see as she went to work navigating through the screens. “It’s easy for you stable types to forget about these magical features when you live your whole life in a bunker.”

“Like what?”

“I’ll go over the other in a minute and the first one you should see right… now.” With that she pressed a final button and released my leg. A strange tingle ran up my spine as my sight began to change. Now when I looked at Sunny I saw a little yellow blip the stayed with her as I moved around the room. Some yellow blips were visible in other places where I couldn’t see anypony. Was this some kind of life detector?

“This is amazing what is this?”

“That’s an E.F.S spell, or Eyes Forward Sparkle. It shows living creatures around you, also it does this.” Sunny quickly took me out of my excitement by shoving me back onto the floor and pulling out a knife which she pressed to my throat.

“What are you-?”

“Sheck your compaf.” Check…the compass? Oh, now that’s useful, the blip that was yellow before was red now. When she saw the look of realization on my face she spat the knife out of her mouth and let me up. Her blip returning to its neutral yellow color.

“Cool huh? It can tell you if the life forms are hostile or not.” I nodded and looked at my PipBuck with a new sense of appreciation.

“You probably could’ve showed me in a better way.” I said, cautiously touching a hoof to my neck.

“Maybe but this way I could teach you a lesson at the same time. I knocked you down without much effort, the lesson? Always be on your guard, you’re a regulator now. Now for the other spell, it’s called S.A.T.S or the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell. It should work well for a novice like you.”

“What does it do?”

“This one’s better used in the field and once you do it’ll speak for itself.” I didn’t have much time to ponder everything I was learning before I was rushed back to my hooves and out of the room. “Alright, we’re losing the light let’s get out there.”

“Wait we’re going back out there?”

“Yes, we used the last of the medical supplies on your sorry hide so we’re gonna go scavenge some more… hopefully.”

“But isn’t it a little late to be going out, shouldn’t we wait?” I was hoping she’d go for it. I guess I just wanted more time to get used to the world after being shot and that…that awful dream I had.

“Nope, we’re heading down towards the clinic by the old stadium and that’s in Red Asphalts territory, it’ll take a while to get there so we are gonna use the cover of night.” I sighed and accepted the fact that I was going to get forced back out into the wasteland and there was no way I was going to get out of it. It didn’t take long to gather enough gear and supplies for going out so within moments we were ready to go. Sunny had equipped herself with a shotgun mounted battle saddle with a bite trigger and saddlebags and I my bags and pistol. As we walked out of the Aquarium I could see where they got the name Requari. The big sign above the entrance had lost several of its letters, turning what it used to be ‘Baltimare Aquarium’ into ‘-------re –quari--’. The sun was just dipping down below the skyline, or so I assumed as the horizon was cast in an orange glow. I wondered just how far away I was from Black Town and the Stable. We walked for about forty-five minutes and all around the area was collapsed and partially collapsed roads that lead to streets lined with small storefronts flanked by suburban neighborhoods.

“Stay close to me Sparks and try to keep quiet.” I trusted her survival skills better than my own so I did as I was told. We were stealthily approaching a nondescript house when something very loudly clambered from the inside. Sunny held up her hoof telling me to stop as she turned back to look at me, frantically pointing to my leg. I activated my EFS on my compass and saw Sunny’s yellow blip and one red blip from the direction of the house. I pointed to the house and drug my hoof under my throat, hoping that the message got through. Whether it did or not, was an answer I never got as the door to the house slowly opened. What shambled out was a pony who was bleeding from her eyes, nose and ears. She was unarmed and her eyes were darting every which way in frantic circles.

“Sunny, we should help her.” As I whispered this to her, the pony in the doorways eyes snapped to us and let out a blood-curdling scream. Without time to react it charged where I was crouching down and tackled me to the ground as Sunny dodged to the side. I erratically kicked around trying to force her off me as she bit down on my foreleg crushing the flesh between her teeth. I screamed bloody murder as I desperately levitated out my pistol and pressed it to her belly and fired three rounds into it. The crazed mare seemed unfazed as she continued to thrash her head back and forth with her teeth still clamped to my leg like a starved predator. Sunny ran to my side and bit down on her trigger which fired a blast from her saddle which flung the mare away from me.

“What the hell was that!?” I whispered through gritted teeth, cradling my wounded leg.

“We have to go! Now!” Sunny immediately turned and started to gallop away from the wild mare who was now back on her hooves. I recoiled in shock, the shot from Sunny had ripped a hole in its chest cavity and its insides were flopping out as it stood. Behind where it was strode another pony bleeding from its eyes and ears from behind a partially collapsed wall. I didn’t need to see any more and turned to gallop after Sunny.

“We need to get inside!” Sunny shouted over her shoulder. I followed her as best I could, thanking the goddesses for adrenaline. I turned to look back at the crazies to see that besides the one with its intestines swinging about, that two more had joined its chase. We ran out of the suburbs deeper into the city, dodging or going around piles of rubble that had blocked streets. We came to an intersection that was completely blocked by debris with no way around.

“C’mon we’re going over!” Sunny dashed up the pile kicking loose chunks of concrete free. I followed after as fast as I could, hearing the clambering of the others not far behind. Sunny was perched at the top of the pile facing our attackers and She kicked a little lever thing behind her battle saddle and smiled.

“Check this out.” When the closest crazy got to the pile she let loose a shot that ignited the bastard, sending it sprawling into the streets engulfed in flames. The other two didn’t notice or didn’t care as we stood atop our hill watching them climb towards us.

“What are we waiting for!?”

“I only had one of those pyro shots, use your PipBuck.” I didn’t have much choice, they would be on us in a matter of seconds. I found SATS and hit the button and marveled at the sight. Time had practically come to a stop, allowing me to survey the area. When I scanned the two crazies little numbers popped up over them and their specific body parts. They read as percentages as ‘chance to hit’ I queued up three shots on the legs of the one nearest to me. I hit the button again as time returned to normal and my shots were carried out on their own through the spell. One shot missed while the second hit low and passed through hitting the rubble behind it. Lastly the third hit directly in the middle of the knee joint separating it from the rest of the leg. The creature fell face first onto a jagged piece of concrete fracturing its skull causing a small bit of blood to spray out. I smiled the same smile as Sunny as I turned to face her only to see her tail disappear down the other side of the pile. The last one was still coming towards us with full vicious intent. I tried to enter SATS again but was met with a recharging alert. I swallowed hard and nearly leapt off the mound after Sunny, narrowly dodging a swipe from the bleeding pony.

Sunny weaved through an alleyway to the left of the pile and then made a quick beeline for a nondescript single story building with me trailing after. As we got close I was able to make out some lettering above the door that read ‘North Baltimare Police Department’. Sunny didn’t slow down at all as she jumped into the air, tucked in her legs and crashed through the stations doors. She was back on her hooves in no time as we kept moving. We turned and ran down a set of stairs to our right which led to a cell block when suddenly a red blip appeared on my compass as a turret descended from the ceiling. I froze as the turret trained its sights on me before Sunny pushed me into one of the cells beside me as she dove into the one across from me. The turret opened fire where I had been standing, hitting our pursuer who had just made it down the stairs in the chest. A loud alarm began sounding as all the doors in the cell block slammed shut except for mine as the bars had been jammed with the bones of its previous occupant. I rose to my hooves just in time for out attacker to charge into my cell, pinning me against the wall biting at me with gnashing teeth. I couldn’t get to my gun so I had to get creative, I wrenched a leg bone off the skeleton in the cell with my magic and swung it as hard as I could. The blow caught it in the temple knocking it to the side, giving me enough time to turn and buck it in the chest with all my strength. It flew back out into the hall where it hit the bars of Sunny’s cell. Before it could come at me again, Sunny reached through the bars with her knife and pinned it against the bars by its throat. It thrashed and growled trying to get away as her blade cut into its neck. Its cries of distress turned to gurgling, its blood choking the air from its lungs. Sunny kept pulling harder and harder until finally the gurgling stopped and its head hit the floor followed closely by the rest of its body. I limped towards Sunny’s cell when the whirring of the turret locking on to me reminded me of the danger. I ducked back into the cell just in time for a volley of lead to hit the wall. I stepped back out into the hall and to my delight was able to slip back into SATS. I queued up three shots on the turret and on the second it exploded into a shower of sparks and metal.

“What the hell were those things!?” I tried to yell over the alarm.

“Go back up the stairs, find a terminal and end the lockdown so I can get out!” She pointed back the way we came. I did as I was told and returned to the first floor. Not too far towards the back was a large office with the placard next to the door reading ‘Chief’. The office was fairly bare bones with only a few filing cabinets gathering dust on either side of the large window behind the desk. On the desk was a shattered vase which once held some flowers, a terminal with no power and the skeleton of who I presumed had once been the chief slumped over in the chair. I walked around and gently pushed the bones onto the floor

“Sorry” I whispered as I took his or her seat. A quick inspection of the terminal and I was able to determine that it was still connected to its power source but it was just not drawing from it. Then I remembered a spell that the maintenance officer back in the stable taught me. A low power lightning spell that we used to test electronics and machinery when we needed to disconnect them from the power grid. I closed my eyes and focused my magic, willing it to the tip of my horn where it arced out in a low crackle. Whether that connected it back to the main line or powered it itself, it let me bypass the password protection since it counted as a reset. Among the various inter-office correspondence entries and police files, there at the bottom of the list was a command ‘Lift Lockdown’. I selected it and the alarms stopped sounding followed by a few sounds of cells from several blocks opening. I was getting ready to get up to go meet Sunny when I saw a case file by the name of ‘Silver Tower, now the Black Tower’ the Black Tower? That giant building Dusty pointed out back in Black Town? I remember thinking that something about it seemed strange. I opened the file and began reading.

It has been one week since the Silver Tower was set on fire from the inside. When questioned, the head of Tomorrow-Tec, Sterling Silver-Mane said that the pony we have in custody had no current or prior relations with the company. Which begs the question, why did she do it? The culprit, one Cider Splash has been thoroughly investigated and it is both mine and the department’s conclusion that she is not a zebra sympathizer. Through some…questionable methods used by The Ministry of Morale we have determined that it was indeed Cider Splash who set the fire yet she continues to deny it, claiming that she has no memory from that morning until the time we arrested her. Since learning that, the M.O.M has refused to share more information with me and have since removed her from our custody.

I knew there was something strange about that tower. Before I could dedicate more thought to it heard Sunny’s hoofsteps drawing near so I continued to comb the terminal for information. The next entry I found was a bit of inter-office messages regarding new technology.

-Chief, I know you’ve been looking into new equipment for the men so I request that you grant me leave to attend the S.M.I Expo. They claim to have something akin to the M.W.Ts power armor called automatic armor. Since the ministry is very strict on releasing their armor for public use I’m hoping I can look into this new armor for use by the police.-

I wondered if there were any sets of the armor they mentioned around the station. That line of thought was pushed aside when Sunny made her way into the office.

“Thanks for getting me out of there, we should really get moving though.”

“Why’s that?”

“If there were any more bleeders or Red Asphalts men nearby they will have heard the alarm. We need to be gone before any of them get here.” I couldn’t argue with that line of thought so I got up from the chair and followed her back outside. “Oh yeah, here.” She reached into her bags and threw something at me. I clumsily caught it in my hooves to see that it was a roll of magic bandages. “You better wrap that leg up before we find trouble again.” I hadn’t noticed my leg much in all that commotion but as soon as she said something sweet Celestia did it start to hurt. I quickly wrapped it to the best ability and caught up to Sunny.

“So those things back there are called bleeders?”

“Right.”

“What are they?”

“Don’t know, they look like ponies but act like ghouls. Although ghouls are a lot easier to kill. Even headshots don’t kill bleeders sometimes.” I didn’t know what a ghoul was but nothing should have been able to shake off a point-blank blast from Sunny’s guns like that thing did. What in Equestria could’ve turned a pony into something like that?

“Hey thanks for doing what you did back there.” I snapped out of my thoughts with a puzzled look on my face.

“What do you mean?”

“I know you aren’t too thrilled about being out here with me or being a part of the regulators. You could have cut your losses and left me in that cell but you didn’t. So I wanted to thank you for that.” That thought never crossed my mind. I could have left her and returned to Black Town. What would that have made me? What did Dusty call me? One of the good ones. I wanted so desperately to live up to that but found myself frequently doing nothing or hiding away from danger while others fought or died for me. I could be better than that. I will be better than that. I resolved to do better, to be the pony I wanted to be.

“Sunny…I-” I was interrupted as a bullet from somewhere hit just in front of me, kicking up a cloud of dust.

“Take cover!” Sunny shouted as she dove and rolled behind a mailbox, returning fire as she did. The shot had come from a roof across the street. I slumped up against the building they were in and used my EFS. There were three hostile blips inside the building. I turned back to Sunny and yelled over the gunshots.

“Three of them!” She nodded in acknowledgement and dove from cover, side-stepping two bullets as she ran to me.

“Ok, ready to go in?” My stomach was doing backflips and I was practically choking on my heart but I couldn’t run. I had to face them, for Sunny, and for myself. I reluctantly nodded. Sunny cracked a lopsided smile and kicked open the door to the building and charged in with me right on her tail. Once we were inside we were immediately jumped on by a brown stallion from the second floor landing. He drove his knees into both our backs, knocking us both to the ground. He turned his attention to me first, getting in a good hit to my gut and another across my face before Sunny tackled him off of me and started a deadly brawl. As I got to my hooves a yellow mare with a pistol in her mouth walked out onto the landing and lined her sights on me. I dove through an open doorway to a connecting kitchen where I just barely landed behind a refrigerator. My heart was beating a million times a second and my legs were shaking violently. It was easy to give yourself a pep-talk or swear you would change but no matter the circumstances, even ones dire as this, it was difficult to change who you were. When bullets stopped hitting the fridge I instinctively peeked around the corner to see that the mare had jumped down from the landing and was heading my way. As she crossed the threshold to the kitchen I immediately did the first thing I could think of. I picked up a nearby toaster with my magic and threw it at her with all my might. Whether through dumb luck or chance, the toaster connected with her muzzle, forcing her to drop her gun.

“Fuck! You’re gonna pay for that asshole!” She scowled at me through a few missing teeth and a mouthful of blood. She rushed me and pinned me against the fridge, wrapping both hooves around my throat. I grasped uselessly at my neck, trying desperately to free myself. The edges of my vision were started to go black when she leaned in and whispered in my ear.

“Try not to die, we could use more racers.” She started to giggle to herself as she watched my flailing slowly start to weaken. I closed my eyes one last time and quickly gathered enough magic to fire out a weak lightning bolt that caught her in the eye. She screamed in agony as she reared back, clutching her face. I hit the ground hard as my vision started to return to me. I got to my hooves as fast as I was able and hit her with my left hoof, catching her above her other eye with my PipBuck which left a large gash in her forehead. She crashed to the ground through the now splintered remains of an old wooden table and did not move. I coughed as I struggled to breathe through the pain when I noticed that the raider mare’s mark on my EFS had turned yellow. I guessed that meant she was unconscious at the least. A crash from the other room reminded me that Sunny was still in trouble. I turned through the doorway to see Sunny sweep the stallions legs out from under him, rear back and bring her front hooves down hard on his head. Unlike the mare in the kitchen, this one’s blip just disappeared as a dark puddle began to form around his head. The look on Sunny’s face made me uncomfortable. I still wasn’t used to the sight of corpses or so much blood but the look in her eyes reminded me of the look Crescent Wrench had when I found him in the riot. She turned and looked me over.

“Nice work Sparks, now c’mon, just one left.” We ascended the stairs and Sunny kicked in the first door at the top of the landing. In the corner of the room was a desk with a glowing terminal atop it. To the left of the desk were some tattered curtains waving in the stale wind from the open window. Another look at my foreleg and I noticed that there were no more red blips. Sunny saw this and frowned. She went to the window and poked her head out.

“Must have jumped and ran. Shit!” I flinched a bit at her outburst but she calmed down very quickly.

“Were those the ponies you were talking about?”

“Yeah, Red Asphalts crew.” That was the third time I’d heard that name and yet I still didn’t know who they were.

“Who is Red Asphalt?”

Sunny scrunched her nose and sneered.

“He’s in charge of a big raider and slaver community. Their base of operations is the old hoofball stadium. He’s been a threat to the communities around here for a while now, foalnapping travelers or townsponies and raiding caravans.”

“Why hasn’t anypony stopped him?”

Sunny’s ears fell back as she looked down to the floor.

“I’ve tried before, we didn’t have the numbers or equipment to assault the stadium but I tried anyway. It was a massacre. They had that place defended better than I thought and I ended up getting a lot of ponies killed.”

I fell back on my haunches. “I…I’m sorry…I-”

Sunny waved a hoof limply at me.

“Look don’t worry about me, I’ve come to terms with it. I’m fine.” I wasn’t sure I believed her but I didn’t think I knew her well enough to press so I left it alone and just nodded. As she started to leave the room I remembered something worth sharing.

“Oh, the one in the kitchen is still alive, unconscious but alive.”

“Oh? I think I’ll go have a little chat with her.”

I grimaced internally for just what exactly that meant but I decided it’d be best to push it out of my head.

“I’ll…uh stay here and see if there’s anything on this terminal.” I was pretty sure she didn’t hear me and truthfully it was mostly an excuse to not have to witness their ‘chat’. The terminal wasn’t locked so getting in was no issue. What followed was a series of personal journals from one of the raiders, the oldest entry was only a week old.

Boss sent us out to find a new spot to watch for travelers. At first I thought he was trying to get us killed by sending us where we’ve seen bleeders before but less than an hour after setting up shop in an old apartment I shit you not a family of four ponies walked down the street. It was a good catch, they were all in pretty good shape. Although two of them are children so we can’t use them in the races but should fetch a good price to the slaving operation out of the Shipyard. Hopefully boss won’t mind that we had to kill the father when he got awful mouthy about how we were treating his wife. Fuckin Razor just couldn’t keep it in his sheathe and didn’t cover the bitches mouth. Woke the whole building up with his fun. Guess he likes to hear them scream? Whatever to each their own, they’re all goin’ to the stadium tomorrow.

We set out further into the ruins today. After having no luck waiting after the first family it seemed like a good idea. We ran into a couple of bleeders and Razor got his stupid ass torn apart after he shot himself up with some Rage and thought he was invincible. At least while they were killin’ him the rest of us got back to the apartment. Now the three of us left sit around all day and wait. At least Yellow Bell is a good lay.

Heard some commotion from the old police station. Something set off the alarms and hopefully whoever it was comes our way. I hope it wasn’t some bleeders shuffling around. We really need some more ponies for the races, I don’t know if we’ll have enough by tomorrow.

That was all there was. I felt sick all over again. I had heard talk of slavery and even seen it myself but I didn’t want to believe it. These raiders were enslaving other ponies. Ponies! How could they do such a thing? And for something as menial as entertainment only added insult to injury. I was suddenly very upset that the raider who was up here had got away. I’d have caved in his skull myself. I was fuming as I walked down the stairs to the kitchen to see what Sunny was doing to the raider mare, the one the terminal called Yellow Bell. She was sat on the floor tied up with rope. She looked up at me with her one good eye, the other looked as if my lightning had fused her eyelid shut.

“What did you get out of her?”

“Nothing, she can’t tell me anything useful anyway.”

I frowned and motioned towards our captive.

“Then why is she tied up?” Sunny silently scooped up the gun that Yellow Bell had dropped earlier and threw it at me. I caught it in my telekinetic grasp and gave her a confused look.

“Kill her.” A simple request, one I had trouble accepting.

“I…but she’s all tied up.” It was easy to want justice for the one who wrote the journals upstairs but seeing this helpless mare extinguished that fire real quick.

“Do you think she’d hesitate if you were in her position?” My ears fell back against my head.

“That’s not fair Sunny. It’s different.” Sunny shook her head.

“No Sparks, it isn’t, she tried to kill us today and we can’t let her go or she’ll just kill again. Now shoot her.” I levitated the gun up and aimed the barrel at her head. This didn’t feel right. Why didn’t it feel right? Sunny was right but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The gun was shaking in my magical grasp which made her start to laugh.

“Hahaha! Fried my eye but can’t finish the job? I knew you were weak. C’mon you fuckin’ pussy DO IT!” I closed my eyes and tried to focus. Okay breathe, c’mon that’s it. Now steady, ok on the count of three… one…two… *BLAM* I swallowed hard and opened my eyes. My gun was still shakily floating in my grasp, a tiny wisp of smoke escaping out of the barrel. I did it. I executed her.

“I didn’t think you’d do it. I’m impressed Sparks, you just might have what it takes to survive out here after all.” She craned her head to look back at the remains of our prisoner. “Just remember that you can’t hesitate Sparks. If you do, you could get yourself or others killed.” She put a hoof and my shoulder as if she were proud of me. I just stared at what was left of Yellow Bell’s head. “Sparks? You gonna be ok?” A cold chill ran up my spine and my mouth started to water.

“I think I’ll be alri- BLARRGHH!” I hadn’t realized how little I had eaten. All that came up was stomach acid and bile. “Holy shit.” I gasped through my teeth as I spat out what was left. Sunny stood behind me patting me on the back like a concerned mother. I was glad she was there for me. It might not have looked it in the conventional sense but she was trying her best to help me adjust to wasteland life…I think. Watcher was right, it was good to have friends. I coughed around the rest of the bile in my throat as Sunny handed me a bottle of something.

“Here drink this, it’s not much but we gotta put something in ya.” I took it thankfully and inspected the bottle. The label read ‘Sparkle-Cola’ I popped off the cap and threw it in my saddlebags as I remembered that Dusty had said that caps were the currency of the wasteland and greedily downed the bottles contents. It was warm, flat and tasted heavily of carrots, it might have even been a refreshing drink two hundred years ago. I heard a ticking noise as a little meter on my PipBuck rose by a tiny fraction. Built in Geiger counter? This little piece of tech really was the pinnacle of magic and technology.

“Don’t worry, you’d have to drink like 100 Sparkle-Colas to get radiation poisoning.” I smiled weakly as the post vomit fatigue started to set in when I remembered what I had been thinking about.

“Hey…Sunny. Are we friends?” The question seemed to catch her by surprise. Her eyes were moving about in thought and she was rubbing her chin with her hoof.

“Hmm… Sure.” …Not quite the response I’d hoped for. Regardless of the lack of ceremony, hearing that did make me feel all warm inside for the first time since I’ve been outside. I don’t know, it was somehow different with her. With Dusty I just kind of assumed there was a sort of friendship but Sunny said it to my face. There was something to be admired about that kind of honesty, even if she didn’t give it her all.

“We should stay here for the night.” I suggested. “If what I read upstairs is true there shouldn’t be any more of Red Asphalts ponies out and about tomorrow.” Sunny nodded her head and we set about to combing through the kitchen to hopefully find something worth eating. Luckily we found a couple of dusty old cans filled with pear slices. I thanked the goddesses for whatever they put in them to make them last so long. After sharing the fruit we made our way upstairs to the room with the terminal to settle in for the night.

We set out back into the ruins as soon as light peeked its way through the clouds. Now I could really see just how massive the Baltimare ruins really were. We must have been just barely skirting within its borders if the skyscrapers in the distance were any indicator. Most notable of all was a tall, white needle like tower in the north part of the ruins that disappeared through the clouds. Seeing the clouds again made me sigh.

“For Luna’s sake is it ever going to not be cloudy?”

Sunny scoffed a little at my remark.

“You really are from a stable aren’t you? I wouldn’t get your hopes up on ever seeing the sky while you’re alive.”

“What!? Why not?” After all the books I read about old Equestria, seeing the sun and moon for the first time was one of the few things I was looking forward to.

“When the bombs fell, the pegasi retreated to the sky and closed it up with that cloud cover and it’s been there ever since.” I felt all my hope of ever seeing Celestia’s sun or Luna’s moon fly out of my heart like air out of a balloon. History remembers the day the world ended as the Last Day but I had assumed that to simply be a dramatic name. Now I saw it for what it truly meant...the Last Day... Equestria had not seen the sun or moon in nearly two centuries and would likely never see them again. But if the pegasi were up in the sky that begged a question.

“Does that mean there are no pegasi in the wasteland?” I hadn’t really noticed or thought about it but in my short time outside I had yet to see a Pegasus.

“Pretty much, they’re all up there above the clouds living normal lives, pretending us surface dwellers don’t exist”

“They don’t ever come down?”

“If they were going to come back they should have done so by now. Besides why would they want to? Down here we got monsters, mutants, radiation and death is a constant threat.” That was just another disappointment to add to my list. There weren’t any pegasi back in the stable either, well in the stable I was born in. Dejection invaded my mind as I accepted the fact that I would never see the sky. We kept moving through the ruins, stopping periodically to survey the area with my EFS. I nearly had a heart attack when we came upon a whole slew of red blips that only turned out to be giant mutant roaches. Sunny explained that Radroaches as she called them were more of a nuisance than a threat. What we couldn’t simply crush with our hooves we were able to avoid until after about an hour we made it to the clinic.

We entered through the main doors that had long since been forced open into the lobby. Directly in front of us sat a receptionist’s desk flanked by a staircase on either side that both led to the second floor. To the left and right were long hallways with patient rooms on either side and off to the right of the desk was an old gift shop that was eerily undisturbed. Other than the shattered panes of glass that once contained the room, there were many shelves of empty plant pots, old dirty stuffed animals, a rack filled with rotted mulch that once held get well cards and a veritable birthday parties worth of deflated balloons. It almost brought a tear to my eye. It pained me to think that patients here went ignored by loved ones. I hoped that the clinic didn’t have many patients when the end came and that was the reason the shop was so full. Sunny tapped me on my shoulder, reminding me of our mission.

We ascended the stairs to the second floor and started inspecting the operating rooms for supplies. Outside each room on the wall next to each door was a safe and a terminal that controlled it. Unfortunately most of the safes were empty and the ones that weren’t had their locking mechanisms broken by somepony who had carelessly tried to force them open. Room after room and the trend continued, broken, empty, broken and empty again until finally we found a safe that was intact with an unpowered terminal beside it. Sunny pulled a screwdriver and a little box of bobby pins out of her bag. I heard a small snap followed by a mumbled curse from Sunny as she threw a broken pin to the ground, followed by another and another.

“Shit! You don’t have any bobby pins do ya Sparks?”

“Umm no…I don’t know how to pick a lock but check this out.” I stepped up beside the terminal and fired a lightning bolt into it. Arcs of energy rippled through the screen and keyboard and then…nothing?

“Huh?” I fired another and received the same result. “Damn, it must be completely broken and not just without power.”

“Hmm you ever use that on a pony?”

“Yeah, yesterday on the mare we tied up.”

“So that’s what happened to her eye. You ought to use it more often.” I didn’t like the idea. I studied that spell to power small machines to help with repairs, using it to hurt ponies just seemed perverse. Although I couldn’t deny that it might save my life one day, or more importantly somepony else’s.

“Let’s keep looking, there’s got to be something here.” I nodded in agreement as we continued down the hall. Just as we turned the corner to the next hallway we found a recessed office in-between the two. The door was locked but through the windows on either side of the door we could see the faint glow of another terminal shining out of the darkness. I wrinkled my brow in curiosity which Sunny must have seen since she then bucked the door off its hinges. I trotted behind the desk and rubbed my hooves together as I set to work getting myself into the terminal. Sunny was meandering around the room sifting through the clutter on the floor or the cabinets and bookcases that lined the walls. It took a moment of combing through nonsense data and decoy passwords before I found the right one ‘dazzling’. Oddly enough there was only one command on the screen: Disengage lock. I selected it and a soft click sounded from somewhere in the room. Sunny must have been closer to the source as she knocked a weathered and peeling painting off the wall revealing a wall safe. She opened it and pulled out a key and a small memento box.

“What do you suppose that goes to?” I asked.

“Well it’s not this little box. Here you hold onto it.” I seized it in my magic and placed it in my saddlebags.

“Maybe it’s a master key?”

“Only one way to find out.” We immediately ran back out into the hall and made for the safe that had denied us before and sure enough the key went right in and it surrendered it contents to us. We did a few laps around the second floor unlocking what safes we could and shoveling all we could find into my bags. After using the sorting spell on my PipBuck I determined that we had accumulated six healing potions, five bottles of painkillers and two super healing potions.

“This is a better haul than I expected. It won’t last long but we should be able to get all our boys back on their hooves with these. I couldn’t have done it without you Sparks.” I rubbed the back of my neck and smiled nonchalantly.

“Well I wouldn’t be alive without you Sunny. It’s the least I could do.” I really did owe her and I was glad that I could help the rest of the regulators.

“If we move quickly we should be able to make it back to the aquarium by dusk.” We enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the second floor’s hallways before I felt a little tap on my shoulder.

“Hey Sparks?”

“What is it Sunny?”

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to but why did you leave your stable?” I knew that question would come eventually. Yet unlike the other times, I didn’t feel like I should keep the truth from her. I sighed heavily and hung my head low. “Oh, that’s alright if you don’t want to talk about it.” I detected a little bit of disappointment in her voice.

“It’s alright, it’s just still fresh in my mind. I had no choice but to leave or the Overmares would have killed me. Things down there are probably really bad after the riot. I had to leave to survive but since I got out here I’ve decided to go back and open the door for good and save all the ponies trapped inside, including my family.” Sunny looked at me with a forlorn expression in her eyes.

“Who did you leave behind?” She asked in a whisper.

“My marefriend, her sister and my mother.” I was almost relieved that I finally could confide in somepony, now was as good a time as any to try this. “Hey Sunny, umm…You’re my only friend here in the wasteland…do you think that maybe after we’re all even that you could…you know, help me?” I really hoped that she would agree. At that moment I had nopony I could count on besides myself. Sunny stopped in her tracks as if pondering the question. We made our way down the stairs to the lobby and before she could answer I saw several red blips on my EFS. I was about to open my mouth and warn her when I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my neck. I pulled whatever it was out with my magic to see that it was a needle. Within seconds my sight began to blur and it became harder and harder to stay on my hooves. I heard Sunny yell something but everything I heard was a dull echo. I could feel and hear gunfire back and forth between Sunny and whoever shot me. I couldn’t move my head to see what was going on and Sunny ran out of my field of vision. The sounds of battle started to fade away as two blips disappeared off my compass, one of which was Sunny’s. A dark form appeared in front of me and spoke.

“That’s them, the ones who killed Bell and Bruiser. They should be out of it for about an hour so let’s get them back to the stadium and see if they’ll accept some late entries into the race.”

Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Scavenger – Whether through sharp eyes or dumb luck, you are more likely to find item stashes.

Next Chapter: Chapter Four: Racing Dissension Estimated time remaining: 30 Hours, 52 Minutes